Misinformation, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu says, is fuelling needless fear about one of the state's most strategically sensitive infrastructure proposals — and on Sunday, 25 October 2026, he sat down with tribal leaders to start correcting the record.

Khandu convened a meeting with the Arunachal Indigenous Tribes Forum (AITF) and several Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) to discuss the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, a proposed large-scale dam on the Siang River in the Brahmaputra basin. His message was direct: 'Our people deserve accurate information to understand the project, its strategic importance and the concerns associated with it.'

What the Siang project is — and why it is contentious

The Siang Upper Multipurpose Project has been on the drawing board since proposals to harness the Brahmaputra basin's vast hydroelectric potential first gathered momentum in the early 2000s. The dam is designed to generate large-scale power while also serving as a strategic water-management buffer — a dimension that carries particular weight given that China has been accelerating its own upstream dam-building on the same river system across the border in Tibet.

That geopolitical backdrop makes the project more than a local infrastructure debate. For New Delhi, every megawatt generated and every cubic metre of water managed on the Indian side of the line is a quiet assertion of sovereign control over a transboundary resource. But for the indigenous communities in the Siang valley, the stakes are equally existential — displacement risks, threats to cultural sites, and environmental change on a river that has shaped their lives for generations.

A pattern of protest, outreach, and unresolved tension

This is not the first time the Arunachal government has had to run an awareness campaign for a Brahmaputra basin project. Large hydropower proposals in the state have repeatedly triggered local protests, and the government has repeatedly responded with consultation rounds. The cycle — proposal, protest, dialogue — reflects a structural tension between national infrastructure ambitions and community-level concerns that no single meeting can fully resolve.

Khandu acknowledged the gap explicitly, calling for 'facts, transparency and open dialogue' to bridge it. The involvement of the AITF — the formal body representing Arunachal's indigenous tribes in state-level discussions — signals that the government is seeking institutional buy-in rather than bypassing community voices.

What comes next for AITF consultations and clearances

Sunday's meeting is the beginning of a wider outreach push, not a conclusion. The outcomes of further AITF and CBO consultations, the progress of environmental clearance processes, and any central government statements on project timelines will each determine how this conversation evolves.

For now, the Chief Minister has planted a flag: the project moves forward, but not without the people it will most directly affect. Whether that commitment translates into substantive changes — or remains a communication exercise — is the question the Siang valley will be watching closely.